so i figured, you know, i rode out irene here also. i figured even if this storm was many orders of magnitude bigger, which it was, i'd only get a little flooding, and thankfully, at high tide on monday night -- 8:22 p.m., i'll always remember that exact time -- that turned out to be the case. megyn: for you they did, for others not so much. it's a very narrow island where the ocean is on one side and the bay is on the other, and i believe it's only one time in history that the two met due to storm surge or other reasons, and it happened this time with the main road that runs through long beach island looking like an ocean, and you can see some of the devastation in these pictures that resulted. describe the scene as you know it now outside. >> um, well, i can't see very much of the island. as you head down the main boulevard south from my town, you eventually -- in the southbound lane you come to a police car with its lights flashing, and they'll tell you the only people south of that point are, um, you know, crucial personnel or anyo